Collectio canonum I in Vat. lat. 3829

The collection in the manuscript Vat. lat. 3829 contains excerpts from papal decretal letters and the decrees of Roman councils – it’s orientation is Rome and papal. The manuscript is the „Verona“ codex which was used to make the copy for Antonio Agustín which is now the second part of the Ms Vat. lat. 4886. At the beginning of the Ms Vat. lat. 3829 is a papal catalogue written in the same hand as the rest of the collection. It lists the popes through Paschal II. The canons on folios 3r–10v are not arranged chronologically. They have been treated separately; their key is PF. A chronologically ordered collection begins on fol. 10v and fills the rest of the manuscript (to fol. 287r). The key of this part of the manuscript is PG. 217

The folios of the manuscript were once numbered on the top of the page and more recently at the bottom. The present analysis uses the more recent numbering. The older numeration begins with fol. 1 on fol. 3 of the recent numeration. Toward the end of the manuscript several folios are bound together incorrectly. The present folios 265– 273 belong between the present folios 256 and 257. The order of the present folios 280–283 should be 282, 283, 281, 280. In the present analysis the proper order of the canons has been reestablished.

The texts are not numbered in the manuscript. In the present analysis the texts of each pope and each council in PG are numbered separately. A text from the Liber pontificalis introduces the decretals of each pope. The decrees attributed to the earliest popes are for the most part pseudoisidorian forgeries. For the later sources the compiler used the Liber decretorum of Burchard, the collections of Anselm of Lucca in the version A’ and Deusdedit, the Diversorum patrum sententie (74T) and the Collectio IV librorum (4L). In some cases the same text appears twice. The canon Nulli fas appears once on fol. 186v and again on fol. 195r. The reading of the first form corresponds to that of the 4L and the reading of the second to that of the 74T.

The compiler was particularly accurate in his transmission of the decretals of popes Pelagius I and Nicholas I. His treatment of the 350 excerpts that he made from letters of pope Gregory I is different from his treatment of texts from other popes. Only the excerpts from Gregory I are ordered systematically. The compiler begins with texts on the primacy of the apostolic see and proceeds to monastic privileges. The compiler used the Register of Gregory’s letters with care. The beginning of canon 63. 267, for example, is Mancipia Christiana quecumque Nasam Iudeum. All other collections that contain the text drop the name Nasam. When texts are taken from Burchard or other intermediate sources, the compiler repeated the mistakes he found there. For example, like Burchard he failed to distinguish bishop Martin of Braga from pope Martin I.

Decretals of pope Gregory VII are found on fol. 278r–279v, the latest being the letter sent in 1081 to bishop Hermann of Metz (Reg. 8. 21; JL 5201). Fol. 280v contains the decrees of the council of Troia in Apulia (1089), fol. 281v a decretal of pope Paschal II, Volumus ac iuxta (JL 6611). On fol. 282r, added to the end of the collection in a different hand, are the canons of the Lateran council of 1110. The canons of the Lateran council of 1112 are found on fol. 282r–283r. 218 Fol. 283r contains a forgery attributed to „Leo“. This same text is found with an attribution to a pope „Ideo“ in the late 12th century Italian decretal collection Lipsiensis. Folios 284r–287r contain the decrees of the second Lateran council held under Innocent II in 1139.

Literature:

The collection is described by Fournier – Le Bras, Histoire 2.210–218. Note that they argue for an earl date, apparently treating the Lateran II canons as not being part of the collection.

The difference of two in the numbering of the folios continues through 11 (old)/13 (new). Then ./., ./14 and 12/15. Then ./. and ./16. Then 13/17. The difference of four continues to 34/38. A scrap of folio inserted into the manuscript is given the number 39 in the new numbering and the gap is raised to 5. This continues until 120, which occurs twice in the older numbering, so that the gap becomes 6. A scrap inserted in the manuscript is given the number 133 and the gap for the following canon becomes 7 (127 (old)/134 (new). This continues until 200/207 at which point a mistake is made in numbering and the old numbering is raised by 10. From 210/217 to 248/255 is a gap of 7. I owe this information to Martin Bertram. For the confusion in the last folios of the manuscript see above. – For the forgery attributed to pope Leo I see Horst Fuhrmann, Ein Papst Ideo (zu Collectio Lipsensis, tit. 27,5), in: Études d’histoire du droit canonique dédiées à Gabriel Le Bras 1, Paris 1965, pp. 89–97. – For the use of letters of Pelagius I see Pius M. Gassó and Columba M. Batlle, Pelagii I papae epistulae quae supersunt (Scripta et Documenta 8, Montserrat 1956), pp. XL–XLI. – For the transmission of the letter of Nicholas I to bishop Braidingus of Mâcon, which only here has the full inscription, see Jasper, The Beginning of the Decretal Tradition, p. 123. For the letters of Gregory I, p. 65. – For decrees of the Lateran councils of 1110 and 1112 see Blumenthal, The Early Councils, pp. 109–122. – Kéry, Canonical Collections, p. 288.

Categories

• saec. XII
• Italian
• large (some 1300 cc)
• needs to be split
• MSS based